Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Nothing smacks of desperation like asking strangers on the internet what to do with my life! LOL!
Oh well, here goes! My situation: White male, single, 54 soon, no big reason to stay here in Cleveland, Ohio. Sick of the snow, cold and weather.
Need a CHANGE! A jumpstart to a new life! I can transfer to the Phoenix office of my company. I am LOW on cash. It will take me a minimum of several months to save up moving money. The upside is I don't have a lot of stuff to move and it won't cost a whole lot. But I need apartment downpayment, etc. and don't want to move to Arizona broke. I will need to buy some furniture when I arrive.
My question to you is, should I move by October, with probably a miniumum
of money, just enough likely to get me to Phoenix and settled in, and probably have to save up and buy furniture one piece at a time?
That would allow me to at least BE THERE and avoid another winter here!
OR should I bite the bullet, bide my time, stay another dreaded winter?
That would of course allow me a lot more time to be more financially equipped.
If I did move, I am willing to work a part-time job also to make ends meet,
and I have worked a lot of crappy part-time jobs in the past, retail, restaurant, security, so I think I would not have too much of a problem finding part-time work in a city as huge as Phoenix?
OR would I? My other concern about moving is the economy is in the dumpster, and may get worse. Should that make me hold off on the move
until things improve?
Another concern is my age, I am not getting any younger, and maybe I should just say the heck with it, and move ASAP! Who knows what lies ahead for any of us?
But even at my age, it is a daunting task to think about moving to a whole other side of the country, not knowing anyone. The saving grace of course is that I can transfer and keep the same job I have as here.
I thank everyone for all the advice and suggestions you have supplied me with in my past posts and for any and all that may come of this one.
Nothing smacks of desperation like asking strangers on the internet what to do with my life! LOL!
Oh well, here goes! My situation: White male, single, 54 soon, no big reason to stay here in Cleveland, Ohio. Sick of the snow, cold and weather.
Need a CHANGE! A jumpstart to a new life! I can transfer to the Phoenix office of my company. I am LOW on cash. It will take me a minimum of several months to save up moving money. The upside is I don't have a lot of stuff to move and it won't cost a whole lot. But I need apartment downpayment, etc. and don't want to move to Arizona broke. I will need to buy some furniture when I arrive.
My question to you is, should I move by October, with probably a miniumum
of money, just enough likely to get me to Phoenix and settled in, and probably have to save up and buy furniture one piece at a time?
That would allow me to at least BE THERE and avoid another winter here!
OR should I bite the bullet, bide my time, stay another dreaded winter?
That would of course allow me a lot more time to be more financially equipped.
If I did move, I am willing to work a part-time job also to make ends meet,
and I have worked a lot of crappy part-time jobs in the past, retail, restaurant, security, so I think I would not have too much of a problem finding part-time work in a city as huge as Phoenix?
OR would I? My other concern about moving is the economy is in the dumpster, and may get worse. Should that make me hold off on the move
until things improve?
Another concern is my age, I am not getting any younger, and maybe I should just say the heck with it, and move ASAP! Who knows what lies ahead for any of us?
But even at my age, it is a daunting task to think about moving to a whole other side of the country, not knowing anyone. The saving grace of course is that I can transfer and keep the same job I have as here.
I thank everyone for all the advice and suggestions you have supplied me with in my past posts and for any and all that may come of this one.
As a fellow Ohioan,I feel your pain. I found this great website as a respite from the 20.5 inches of snow we enjoyed not so long ago.
I will give you my story.
I'm 37 and have lived in Columbus,O-H-I-O my whole life.
I originally planned on making the move to Arizona a few years ago and even ventured out and managed to secure employment. I could not pull the trigger then because of a family situation.
Now,I am coming back out at the end of April to yet again lock down a job and find a decent safe place to call home.
My plan is to make the move around the end of Sept. I feel I will have the cash to make it.
My word of advice.... like Mike,Just Do It.
I cannot explain why I feel the pull to Phoenix,the weather the area the ability to do and see things you cannot in Ohio
Who knows,maybe I will get out there and hate it,just like the guy staring down the barrel of Harry Callahans .44 magnum,"I gots to know".
Good luck and I hope you can make the change and it will be good for you.
Bucksfan45
If you have never been to Phoenix, you need to visit. We came from Chicago and we love the Temperature. YES, it can be very hot in the summer 100-120 degrees but somehow it is better than SNOW> maybe because I experienced "frost bites" couple of times while shoveling snow that HEAT is better than SNOW & below zero.
You're 54 and broke living in Ohio. Obviously you need a change. Get out! If there is no opportunity why prolong the agony? You can go on Craigslist and find plenty of rooms for rent in a nice house for $500 a month or less without a security deposit. Some with a pool and private bathroom. Try and get a thousand or two put aside. Sell or donate everything besides what you need and start fresh. 54 is not old but if you wait another 5 years... You can easily find a job making $10-12/hr to get by on until something better comes along. Just get yourself organized, pack as much as you can fit into your car, arrange for a place to live and go! You can do the move for the price of gas, the months rent and a few hundred to get food for your first month. You can buy furniture cheaper at thrift shops than it would cost to rent a truck. Good luck!
The grass is not always greener, sometimes there is no grass
No one can tell you what to do. But, personally I don't understand the escape from the winters, I am from Ky, liveing in Ohio when I moved here. seasons are nice because its change, sure winter is harsh and sometimes very brutal, but not every winter, every year is the same, some are mild, and they all are are short lived most the time. Now, are you sure you are ready for the insane summers here? The heat drags on rentlessly for 4 to 5 months. Believe me it can get pretty depressing after a while, not to mention very draining on the body. the air is always very dry which makes your skin feel terrible and your sinus's crack and blood in your nose is not uncommon now and then, I have experienced this and others I know have as well. The landscape is pretty in a different way, if you are attracted to the dry, dusty dirt and cactus, the bluest sky you will ever see, and perfect weather in the winter, yes, theres some really nice things, you pay bigtime for the pay off of having those few beautiful months though. also there is a lot of traffic and a whole lot more people then where you will be comeing from. People do not mingle like they do back there, this can be pretty lonely if you are not used to your own company. Point is there is no where perfect, not here, not there, it is what you make it
My niece did what you are proposing to do. Shipped 5 boxes of her kitchen stuff UPS to my sisters house in Scottsdale, got whatever would fit in her Honda Civic--->and drove from Wisconsin to Scottsdale last June. No job lined up. Not more than a few hundred bucks to her name. She initially stayed with my sister because she didnt have a job lined up, but she did pay my sister rent. She got a PT job working at PF Chang's. In November she got her own apartment, with not a stick of furniture to her name. She figured she would go out to one of the high end furniture stores here and finance about $7K in furniture. They turned down her application. So she lived a few weeks with absolutely no furniture. She had champagne taste on a 7-up budget lol! Then figured out she had to scale back her taste. A few weeks later she bought a cheap mattress set and frame at Costco. For Christmas her mother bought her a small dining set at Ashley Furniture that was around $200. In February she bought a couch I think was around $400. Last weekend I took her to Ikea and she bought 2 end tables for her living room for $30 a piece. This weekend we are going back to Ikea because she wants to buy a chair ($99) and a headboard (only like $200). Her mom brought her down an old TV to use and an old trunk to use for a tv stand. She picked up a few lamps at Target for like $40. She kept her PT job at PF Chang's through the holidays to save up a little extra cash in addition to her FT job.
I did the opposite. My employer paid for my relocation-which the moving truck and vehicle transport ranked in at somewhere between $10K-$15K alone. (Choke!) I negotiated a huge salary increase. I also negotiated a large cash moving "bonus". I brought all my furniture "just in case", figuring they were paying for the move, so I wouldnt have to be in a rush to get furniture. They even sent me out here first class because there were no economy seats left on flights by the carrier we use they day I needed to arrive. So I was well prepared financially. Since September, I bought a new leather couch, a few area rugs (darn rugs are NOT cheap), some artwork for the walls, 2 leather recliners, 2 leather barstools (I have an open kitchen with like a breakfast bar type setup) and a bed for my son's room. I also had to buy a brand new car because some moron in an armored truck TOTALLED my other brand new car I had just bought in Cleveland before moving (it was under 3,000 miles when it was totalled). I do want to replace some of my other furniture like my dining and bedroom set, but I have time and the money to wait until I find exactly what I like and at least have the ones I brought with me.
Other than furniture and getting you and whatever you want to bring here, expenses are minimal. Depending if you have to pay deposits to setup the utilities, but even if you do they arent like astronomical. My niece had to pay like $80 for one of the utilities. The big dinger: registering your vehicle. The registration is based on the value of the vehicle. If you have a newer or valuable vehicle, you definitely want to be prepared for this. I got dinged somewhere I think north of $400 just to register my car. Then there are the little things like bath tissue (LOL!) or whatever housewares or kitchenwares you dont bring with you. And your car insurance will most likely go up. Mine just went up a few dollars tho so not a real biggie.
Don't discount Ikea for temporary furnishings or housewares. You cant get a $99 chair too many places nowdays. Or a $30 end table. And then as your income allows, you could replace if needed. Or if your apartment has a breakfast bar type deal, just buy yourself a bar stool until you can get a dining table. Some air mattresses are actually very comfortable and can be had for around $100 until you could get a bed. (Then added bonus you can keep the air mattress on hand for when you have guests later.) Also Craigslist. I have seen folks selling sofa/loveseat combos for next to nothing. May not be highest quality or brand new, but there are always slipcovers for a few bucks until you could get what you really want.
The good piece for you is you HAVE a job if you transfer out here. That's a big part of the uncertainty you wouldnt need to deal with.
Of course dont trust what a bunch of strangers say on an internet discussion forum. Go with your gut.
Stay in Ohio. A lot of my family lives in the frozen Tundra of the upper midwest. They are all broke and living paycheck to paycheck because the economy stinks - always has and always will. But, everybody's broke around there. It's the norm. You have plenty of friends who live in houses with the paint peeling off, see plenty of rusted and smoking old cars like yours at the ShopKo, and have bars and places to go where you can get a cheap beer or a reasonably priced drink. In short, you fit in.
If you're broke and move here, you're like a brown shoe at a wedding. You don't fit in. You move into a land where money matters. It matters in where you live, the friends you have, the places you go, the schools your kids attend, your safety on the streets, the self-esteem you may have and how you are perceived. If you are poor or on the edge, you get a lousy apartment in a dangerous part of town, where you neighbors are drug addicts or illegal aliens or crooks and thieves. Even if you are not one of these all your neighbors and everyone you tell your address to will think you are. Your old AMC Javelin will be a source of shame and ridicule here where in Ohio it might have been considered a classic - especially if the rust wasn't so bad.
Everywhere you look here you will see success. People with money and posers who have enough to pretend they do are like ants on a jelly bean here. There are Hummers and Beemers and so many houses bigger and more extravagant than anyone would ever need. After a while of seeing this and going back to your dingy apartment in your rundown neighborhood you will lose whatever sense of self-worth you came here with and sink into hopelessness and depression.
This is the worst place on earth to be down on your luck.
Don't mean to sound rude but what is keeping you in Cleveland? One thing is for sure. If you do nothing, nothing is going to change! What do you have to lose by taking a chance and coming to Phoenix?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The grass is not always greener, sometimes there is no grass
